"Spacelords grav speeders review" Topic

As some of you know, Doug from em4 is relaunching a whole swathe of figures from the classic Spacelords 28mm sci-fi range. As a long-time Spacelords fan, I've been getting as many of these as possible. Perhaps best among the cureent roster of releases are the cybertech grav-speeders:

There are cureently two models of speeder available, with two kinds of crew – pictured above is the wartech with machine cannon. I ordered several of each kind…

The machine cannon speeders are superb models, clean and deep-sculpted, and Doug had taken the trouble to re-drill their flight stand holes, so that they fitted perfectly. These have to be my favourite one-man sci-fi vehicles, period.
The whole re-released range is beautifully cast, with virtually no flash and minimal mould lines; in other words, standard em4 high quality.

The whole of the current release roster can be seen on this thread:http://www.lead-adventure.de/index.php?topic=68351.0, and for those who haven't jumped on board ot get some of these cool minis, I really reccomend you check 'em out. The more people who get some stuff now, means more of the range will be released, which at Doug's low prices, can only be a good thing!

That's great. When will Doug have these available?

The two on the left are the other type of jet cycle for the wartechs (I have the Wartech pilot, just can't find him) and the item on the right is one of the Phagon Battleclone walkers.

Hi TMV,

I really hope Doug will be able to cast up the jet cycle and especially the phagon battleclone walkers – very cool, distinctive vehicles and I've been looking forward to getting some.

I've been chatting with Doug, and to be honest, he could do with some more sales in order to keep this project rolling. There have been some very supportive fans both here and on the lead adventure forum, but I think the range still needs some more exposure – every new mould costs, as you know, and sales need to be strong enough to keep putting out new ones.

So long as we can keep the rereleases alive, I would love to see these coming out soon – plus the phagon battle beasts (my personal favourite) – you can never have too many giant biomechanical bug-eyed monsters!

I'm surprised – I'd have thought people would be jumping on these, especially those who missed them first time around as they were and are still excellent sculpts.

I'd have thought people would be jumping on these

So did I…..:-(

Doug

I totally agree. Maybe the grav bikes have sold well, while others haven't been picked up as much as they deserve; I don't know. All I can say is that Doug has a big job making new moulds, and is trying to finance each new batch of moulds based on sales from the previous batch, so he could really use our support!
I try to get as many as I can; I'm on a tight budget, so can only get one or two of each set as they come out. But if all the fans did that, the rest of the range could be produced, no problem.

Just have to hope more people pick up on these cool vehicles – perfect complement to any sci-fi force in my estimation!

I see that Doug must have posted just before I posted my reply, making my guesswork somewaht redundant!

Really sorry to hear it confirmed that the grav bikes haven't sold as many as they rightfully deserve, Doug!

Just to reiterate for all the sci-fi players: these are the coolest, best value-for-money grav bikes you can get, and your forces deserve the best!
Out of interest, I tried swapping out the riders for some em4 Copplestone-sculpted bikers (future skirmish range), and they fit well, especially since the bikers have aseperate arm that can be adjusted to fit the grav-speeder's differnet height.

Anyway, here's hoping you get some more orders Doug, and some more spacelords can be released…it's the previously unreleased Phagon Overlords that people are most eagerly waiting for (hint, hint)!

Hi.
As a fan of the Spacelords figures I have all miniatures.
I would buy 3 miniatures for the Overlord/Brtoherhood series of every master figure of.
I also would be interested in the miniatures from the Unit Packs, primarily the figures which there was to buy one by one never.
Greetings……

Doug's rerelease of the SpaceLords figures got me mucking through my storage unit, where I rediscovered just how many of this classic series of figures I already owned, and had forgotten about. So, it's got me painting them up, picking up where I left off so many years ago, and man, do I have a lot of unfinished business, including a half dozen or so of the Phagon walkers, a whole 'nother platoon's worth of Phagon Battleclones, a reinforced platoon's worth of Wartech regulars, a squad of Wartech SEC troopers, and I just finished a pair of the grav bikes with Wartech riders and need to base them on flight stands. Add to that a platoon of the Cybertech Bunkerbusters (!!!), and a half company of Yoyodyne Shigaru. Yow!

So. Quo vadis? Well, to begin with, I will be wanting more Yoyodyne Shigaru packing auto guns and laser rifles, a few more heavy machine gunners for same, and I only have two (2) measly grav bikes?! No, that won't do, and seeing that we're getting closer to releasing a Beta playtesting version of our Silent Death universe ground combat skirmish rules…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

You've got a great collection there, Leland!

Back when these first came out, I was too young to have any money to speak of, so every purchase had to be carefully weighed.
Ok, so I don't have much money now either, but can still actually build more than one collection at once, rather than having to think 'this year it's fantasy' or 'only 1/72 scale plastic for now.'

I would love some phagoin battle walkers, and like MetalMagic, would get several sets of the unreleased phagon Overlords – very eager to see what they look like!

Twin,

my collection is the result of a prefect storm of circumstances including being an assistant manager at a very successful game store, a lost in translation error while ordering over the phone from a British ex-pat who wound up sending me three of every pose of Phagon and Battleclone rather than one of each of the three poses in each code as I asked for (and an ex wife who at the time had a fit of rationality and kindness and told me to go ahead and keep all that metal rather than sending back the excess and demanding a refund for the balance), and walking into another local hobby shop just after they'd marked down their Metal Magic stock to clearance sale prices and put out the forgotten back stock while they were at it, enabling me to score the great bulk of my Wartechs, Bunkerbusters, and Phagon walkers all at once.

I got lucky. Really, really lucky, and I am glad I hung onto most of 'em over the years, as frankly, these are some of the best, most imaginatively realized 28mm sci fi sculpts I've come across in over 35 years of collecting metal figures. They paint up extremely well, there's plenty of character and animation in the poses and facial features, and their combat gear is overall quite sensible looking while still having a very powerful sci fi Moebius vibe IMHO, a unique look really not seen in most other sci fi figures available before or since.

Come to think of it, I could swear I had more than just two grav bikes… I'm still going to shoot for a whole platoon of 'em, just on principle as soon as the budget allows, as they're the best damn speeder bikes I've seen, nice and sleek and wickedly armed, just the way I likes 'em… just wish the sculptors had made a speeder bike with a female trooper ala Dawleen…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Leland, that is a great story – a fortuitous chain of events, indeed!

I totally agree with your assessment of spacelord's virtues. In fact, I'm a big Moebius fan (and 70's Metal Hurlant series in general, and most current euro sci-fi comics as well).
Very sad Moebius passed away a few years ago. Heartening that many of his students/stylistic followers are still producing great comic art. In fact, Final Incal is getting it's first english-language hardback edition, and from the pages I've seen it's packed with a wealth of superb sci-fi designs – perfect fodder for miniatures painting and conversion!

Twin,

so wedged in between a small mountain of academic derring-do, other projects a galore, and getting ready for our granddaughter's first visit, I have managed to paint up a dozen of the Wartech SEC troopers I rediscovered so recently. I plan to use these twelve specifically to start playtesting our new sci-fi ground combat rules set in the SD:TNM universe…

I will post photos, and I think I have relocated the bin with the Phagon Battleclone walkers just a few minutes ago…. stay tuned…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

I have managed to paint up a dozen of the Wartech SEC troopers I rediscovered so recently. I plan to use these twelve specifically to start playtesting our new sci-fi ground combat rules set in the SD:TNM universe…

I will post photos, and I think I have relocated the bin with the Phagon Battleclone walkers just a few minutes ago…. stay tuned…

Eeeeeeeeexcellent…[/Mr. Burns]

I found 'em… there's six (6) of the beastly things for me to finish… Mwahahahaaaa!!!

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Hi Leland, great to hear you're progressing well on the spacelords project!
Sorry for the late reply – between my daughter's 4th birthday and sleepless nights caused by my baby's teeth coming through, I haven't been on TMP for a while.

BTW, is it ok to ask what academic project you're working on? I seem to remember you saying that it was postgrad or a postdoc, but I don't think you mentioned the research area. You can always PM me if that's more suitable. I had a question about Silent Death, too, but I though tI'd better not swerve this thread any further from topic!

Cheers,

Jamie

Jamie,

PM sent! Meanwhile back at the space station, the SEC troopers are nearing completion, perhaps by week's end I'll have photos up on my blog…

Leland R. Erickson
Metal Express
metal-express.net

Thanks Leland, I've just replied!

Looking forward to seeing those SEC troopers painted up.

I really hope Doug rallies on this project, because I'd be very happy to get some of those troopers myself (and those phagon battle-beasts…really need some biocybernetic monstrosites).